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clock "ETHICS"

Posted By: Rich Munitz
Date: Monday, 2 March 2009, at 6:01 a.m.

In Response To: clock "ETHICS" (Coolrey)

Everyone is entitled to their opinion on "responsibility" and whether or not it is acceptable sportsmanship to take advantage of clock errors.

However hitting the clock without rolling the dice at all when not closed out is an invalid situation, not an illegal move. It is not valid to pass ones turn in backgammon. That situation cannot happen without a clock. You cannot clear a point in your closed board, lift your dice and then your opponent says "I pass my turn" and you just roll again. And lacking such a statement, you wouldn't pause a moment to see if they planned on rolling and then when they don't you just roll again. No, if the opponent failed to roll, you'd tell them its their turn - wake up and roll. Sure they can roll their dice, and then simply lift them at which point it is an illegal play if they could have entered, but they must roll in order to play illegally. The rules of backgammon continue to apply with clocks. You must roll your dice when it is your turn, except when closed out or with no legal moves. The clock rules are pretty clear on what happens in these situations:

"A player with no legal moves is not required to roll the dice but must continue hitting the clock to complete his turn and reset the deductible."

So the player must roll if there are potentially legal moves to be played, and in my opinion, anyone that notices that they have failed to roll should do the ethically right thing and correct it.

That is my interpretation. I am curious as to how directors would rule on the following scenarios:

If player A is on auto-pilot and hits his clock without rolling when he has legal moves. He recognizes the mistake, centers the clock and appeals to the director:

a) Before player B has rolled. Does A reroll or not?

b) After player B has rolled. Does A reroll or not? If yes, does B's roll stand (premature action) or not?

c) After player B has rolled, played, and hit his clock. (This can potentially happen very quickly). Player A points out the oversight before rolling.

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